Blacks should be supportive of gays' struggle

ATLANTA - More than two dozen black pastors added their voice to the critics of same-sex marriage, attempting to distance the civil rights struggle from the gay rights movement and defending marriage as a union between a man and a woman...

Today's news comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed the gay civil rights movement. That some black clergy would join with their white brethren in this one last act of discrimination has little to do with race, and everything to do with religion struggling not to lose its stranglehold on the legislation of morality.

Nonetheless, you have to appreciate the irony of what the black pastors are telling the nation: all civil rights are not created equal.

Letter to a friend:

The SF Chronicle had an interesting article today, "How's It Playing In
 Peoria?". This title was taken from the question first asked in the Nixon
 administration when they wanted to float a trial balloon. In turn this was
 taken from the theatrical groups where the plays were tested in Peoria
 before even opening in New York and Chicago.
 
 On Gay Rights, Peoria is about where Phoenix was maybe 15 years ago. Active
 and open gay community, ain't nobody's business if you do, just don't be
 active and open because we don't want to hear about it.
 
 City Councilman Clyde Gulley Jr. (who voted to include gays and lesbians in
 their human rights ordinance): "A 'yes' vote means I don't agree with people
 being discriminated against. That's it. It doesn't mean I agree with
 homosexuality. I don't."
 
 Much of the population leans toward the Christian right. The article
 distinguishes between 3 categories of views against same-sex marriage (note
 these same 3 categories form the bedrock of all other opposition to civil
 rights equalities for sexual minorities):
 
 - The Bible says it's a sin. No matter how much "love thy neighbor" claptrap
 you throw in their face, the gay community willfully chooses to go up
 against God's Law. There you have it; as a fundamentalist my hands are tied.
 Sure, I love all those on our side, but those people chose to defy our
 beliefs by being on the other side. What's a girl to do?
 
 - Gay rights aren't civil rights. See #1. How can it be a right if it's
 wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong?
 
 - Supporters of gay marriage are trying to make an end run around the law
 and social norms. See #1 and #2. It's no longer just our opinion that it's
 wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. It's the law. Our representatives have
 defined it as wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. How can anybody argue with
 that? Difference of opinion is one thing -- gee, our hands are tied here:
 defiance of the law is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
 
  :grin:.
  

This succinct little paragraph sums up the issues very well. It is from today's ACLU online action newsletter. You might want to copy and paste this into NotePad and put it into your documents folder for quick reference:

 Federal Marriage Amendment -- the President and his radical allies 
 have endorsed an amendment to the Constitution which would force the 
 states to discriminate against their citizens. Gay Americans serve in 
 the military, keep our communities safe as firefighters and police 
 officers, staff our hospitals, build our cities, and pay taxes. Denying 
 gay couples the right to marry takes away legal rights in pensions, 
 health insurance, hospital visitations and inheritance that other 
 committed couples enjoy. You can visit www.aclu.org/marriageamendment 
 for more information and take action at 
 http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=9977&c=101 
 

AT FIRST we just were going to write a mini-piece about the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama's state judicial building. We'd heard Chief Justice Roy Moore's claim that the Ten Commandments were actually pretty secular common sense rules for getting along with each other, shared by other religions including Islam. At first, inappropriate as this posturing was for a court house, there was still the appeal to common sense. Were folks over-reacting?

If you don't know what's going on, you need to check your local newspaper or just do a Google search. While the media is playing up only the appearance of judicial impropriety here, a Google search on Chief Justice Roy Moore reveals his motivation and backing right away:

... return to the knowledge of God in our land.". To support Chief Justice
Roy Moore's fight for the Ten Commandments CLICK HERE! HOME. ...

"To restore morality we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs," said Moore at the unveiling of the monument..."

When a supreme court judge pronounces as his first duty the curatorship of the public morality, it's clear the ABA and the legal process has let this nation down. In a nutshell, this guy is an in-extremis religious wacko in high office, who also turns out to have a homophobic streak at least as wide as Lou Sheldon's.

Given the bible-thumping ilk that fluttered out in swarms to support of Judge Moore, we should have known better. It may not seem fair, but if you want to know the real political import of a multi-sided issue, all you have to do is look at the proponents on various sides.

This week, from GLAAD:

That's the last straw. To paraphrase Moore:

The State carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of judicial office toward personal religious ends, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle.

vado : go, hasten, rush

"Who goes there", at Summitlake.com? We've put a tremendous effort into upgrading site-wide. We have new articles, photos, and even departments. Readership on this free site is up, and we should pass the million-pages mark some time within the year.

Maybe you've noticed that La Parola has benefitted little from most of this, apart from new style sheets, auto menus and a face lift. We've noticed this too. La Parola was our first publishing "love affair", going back to before anybody ever heard of the Internet.

We intend to add more content to La Parola as the opportunity presents itself, but there's nothing specific on the drawing board. Like many of you, we tend to react to events once they impose themselves upon the gay community. GLAAD, Lamda Legal and the ACLU continue to lead the many fine organizations fighting to give gay and lesbian citizens full legal citizenship status this country. It is easy for us to continue to giving to these organizations and donating to our "own" Pacific Center.

We're aware that the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the most grease. On the one hand, we just can't keep pace with folks who want to know how to make their DOS drivers work with FireWire. On the other hand, apart from the occasional crank mail (see the article below this one), we almost never hear from you, the La Parola reader. Oh, is this your fault now, or perhaps good news in disguise? Read on.

Maybe that's the way it should be. The days of underground newsletters and letters laced with innuendo and double meaning are over. If you have something to say, there is no particular reason why you should say it to La Parola when you can write the San Francisco Chronicle, and get it published.

Here are some of our observations on the role of La Parola for the future.

• More of our articles which at one time would have gone into La Parola now go to our Commentary department where they reach a broader audience.
• Time and changing attitudes in the greater community has taken some of the sense of urgency out of gay-specific commentary. People who used to advocate execution now go for the cheap, easy smear, and they themselves are more easily pigeon-holed in the public eye.
• La Parola has always been a community resource. Most of the work we wanted to accomplish here is done.
• A larger part of gay life in America can be devoted to networking with the greater community on careers, pasttimes, global issues and more generalized human rights issues -- or in becoming integrated into the community, if you will. This is what the Gay Rights movement set out to accomplish from the very beginning.
• The established article base of La Parola -- Black Elk, Talking Crow and the Matthew tribute, to name a few -- continue to be the drawing cards for new readers, who come here because they are looking for something specific in the search engines, find it, read it, and leave.

We hope the next opportunity for a La Parola feature article won't have to wait until we're prompted by a community setback. Like any other class of writer, we rarely know what the next article's going to be until we're writing it. Until then, be well. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Hugs and such,

Alex

Gosh, we're getting more crank mail from mindless religious gay-baiters who want to "convert" us, or who think we'd be interested in hearing "my preacher says it's a sin" just one more time. We think that attempting to convince one's victims that they are morally disqualified from self-defense is the lowest form of arrogance. Anyway, we posted these rants in case anyone is morbidly curious.

Just when we thought the conservative right was predictable, California Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon had to go and tell the world he supports pretty much the same rights for gays and lesbians as for regular folks, including some vaguely limited right to legal recognition of partnerships which would (of course) fall short of equating homosexual liasons with the sanctity of heterosexual religious marriage vows.

With his characteristically terrible sense of timing, he made these declarations before an assembly of gay Log Cabin Republicans. Anti-gay spokescreature Lou Sheldon and his Traditional Values Coalition raised hell about it, charging that Bill Simon can't be trusted to stick to anything he promises. Simon characteristically backed off and recanted nearly everything. It's back to square one for the press and the public. Bill is back in the fold. No one can tell what, if anything, Simon really believes.

But you knew all this. My point? For the first time in history, Lou Sheldon and Gay Americans both finally agree on something. Simon can't be trusted.